Chapter 5 - ROOM 214
Jared’s first instinct was to send twenty armed men.
My first instinct was to run in the opposite direction.
Neither happened.
Miles traced Brendan’s call while Jared arranged a smaller team.
I sat beside Nero, trying to stop my hands from shaking.
Jared crouched in front of me.
“You don’t have to go.”
That surprised me.
“Five minutes ago you were ordering everybody around.”
“I’m learning.”
“Fast learner.”
“No.”
His eyes held mine.
“Motivated.”
I looked away first.
We drove north before sunrise.
Nero stayed behind with the veterinarian, but Jared took the collar and memory card.
Room 214 was exactly as I remembered it.
Faded green door.
Cheap railing.
Ice machine humming at the far end.
The motel had changed owners.
The hallway smell had not.
For one second I was twenty-eight again, barefoot and terrified.
Jared noticed.
“You can wait in the car.”
“No.”
We opened the room.
Empty.
Bed stripped.
Curtains closed.
Bathroom dry.
No Evelyn.
But somebody had been there recently.
On the table sat one photograph.
Me.
Taken outside the Brooklyn clinic two months earlier.
Under it was a handwritten note.
SHE HELPED ME ONCE. SHE MAY BE THE ONLY PERSON NERO WILL TRUST.
Evelyn’s handwriting matched the note Jared kept in his records.
Behind the photograph was another message.
JARED, IF WILLA IS WITH YOU, YOU’VE ALREADY MADE THE SAME MISTAKE FATHER DID.
Jared read it twice.
“What mistake?”
I searched the room.
The air conditioner rattled.
Something beneath the bed reflected light.
A burner phone.
One saved video.
Evelyn appeared on screen.
She was alive.
Tired.
A bruise darkened one side of her forehead, but her voice was clear.
“Jared, if you’re seeing this, Dominic found out I was investigating Dad’s death.”
Jared froze.
Their father had officially died of a heart attack two years earlier.
Evelyn continued.
“It wasn’t natural.”
Miles swore under his breath.
“Dominic arranged the medication switch. I found the pharmacy records.”
Jared’s face became frighteningly calm.
“He killed my father.”
Evelyn shook her head on the video as if she could hear him.
“Do not go after Dominic angry. That is what he wants. There’s something bigger.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“Dad changed his will six days before he died.”
Jared frowned.
“I saw the will.”
“No,” Evelyn said on the recording.
“You saw Dominic’s version.”
She held up a document.
“The original gives controlling authority over Kensington Holdings to me and Jared jointly.”
Miles whispered, “Dominic currently controls the voting trust.”
Exactly.
If Evelyn lived, Dominic’s authority vanished.
If Evelyn died, Jared inherited everything.
So why keep her alive?
Evelyn answered before we could ask.
“Dominic needs my biometric authorization to move the offshore assets. He can’t kill me yet.”
The screen flickered.
Then she leaned closer.
“And Jared…”
Her voice broke.
“Do not trust the person who tells you Miles brought Willa to you by accident.”
The video ended.
May you like
Slowly, Jared turned toward Miles.
Miles Drummond went pale.
